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‘Clutter’ taken off high street in safety drive
A £1.5MILLION plan to improve road safety in Camden Town by “de-cluttering” the high street is being launched tomorrow (Friday).
The project will see Camden become the latest local authority to adopt Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman’s concept of “naked streets” by removing signs and road markings in a bid to force motorists to drive more safely. It works on the principle that motorists are more likely to drive carefully if they use their own judgment, instead of blindly obeying instructions.
The concept has been successfully introduced in Kensington, where traffic accidents fell by 44 per cent over two years
Camden will be the first local authority to remove all road markings including yellow lines.
Farokh Khorooshi, who is spearheading Hampstead 2020, a campaign calling for the same measures to be introduced in Hampstead, said: “We’ve been bandying this idea about for a year now and we’re glad to see the message is getting through. People are starting to realise that putting street paraphernalia everywhere does not create safe streets. This gives us hope that the project could be rolled out in other parts.”
But resident Naomi Phillips, who lives on the corner of Parkway and Arlington Road, said she thought the plans could go further.
“Much better would be to pedestrianise the whole street,” she added.
“That really would improve safety.”
The project, which should be completed by March 2010, is being jointly funded by Camden Council and Camden Town Unlimited.
Councillor Chris Knight, Camden’s head of environment, said: “The project allows us to upgrade the high street and make it even more attractive, pleasant and safe.” |
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